We left Caldwell Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Clearfield, UT (just north of Salt Lake) that evening and spent the night with Aaron's brother, Brent and his family. We got to Mom & Dad's at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park (southern Utah)the next afternoon. By late that night everyone had arrived. The next day, of course, was Thanksgiving and we kicked it off by surprising Mom & Dad with their Christmas gift from us kids- a 32" Samsung LCD TV. This is something they've wanted/needed for a while now and with some pre-planning and a last minute trip to St. George by Bryce and Dena, we were able to give it to them. For the rest of the day we cooked, played cards, napped, played XBox and Wii, and enjoyed a fantastic meal.
The weather was pretty crummy, so the plan to visit "The Wave" had to be cancelled. More on that later. I think that turned out to be for the best, though, because we could all just hang out and enjoy each other's company for the entire day.
Nerts was of course a huuuuge part of our weekend. Game after game was played, along with the occasional hand of Huey Luey and Hearts.
Pyper became quite the card shark herself, constantly begging for someone to play War or Go Fish with her. Dena was usually the most willing, though when she called Pyper a "hustler" she was immediately informed that "that's not nice!". Apparently the hustler is easily offended. :)
Dad enjoying his turkey neck in solitude while he "watches" the deep fryer.
The fruits of his labor- two beautifully and deliciously deep-fried turkeys.
On Friday some of us went to see the dinosaur tracks just outside the park boundaries, which was only a few minutes away. We bounced along a windy path in the park truck then hiked a little way on some smooth rock to find them. It was pretty cool- most of them actually look like dinosaur prints!
Inspecting the faint remains of one of the tracks we found.
This trail of 5 or 6 prints was pretty distinct, though it was a shame that someone had been careless when taking a cast of a couple of them and left some kind of residue around it. Can you see them start at the bottom of the photo and continue past Pyper and right up to Popper's feet?
Is this the cutest picture or what?
Hakan cheesin' big time!
Pyper spotted this little print on her own- she was so proud of herself!
Mom had to work on Friday, but once she got home that afternoon we all drove over to Zion's National Park for some family photos. (I don't have any of the whole group, so watch on the Anderson blog for those.) We did a little sight-seeing then headed back to the house.
After almost a dozen attempts, I think this was the best family photo we could get. Hakan just would not cooperate. I guess that's a two-year-old for ya.
On Saturday Dad, Bryce, Keith, Patrick, Rachelle, and Aaron went to The Wave. It's this giant formation of smooth rock in Arizona that you have to have passes to visit. They only allow 20 people per day to go in order to preserve it. 10 of the passes can be purchased online months in advance, and the other 10 are drawn out in a lottery the day before. Bryce, Todd and Dad had managed to win the drawing for 6 passes to be able to go on Thursday, but since the weather was foul they couldn't use them. They tried again on Friday (for Saturday passes) and won again! Yes, they had to pay twice, but at least they'd get to use them this time. Anyway, the hikers got up and left in the morning and didn't return until dark.
I wasn't there (thank goodness!) so I may not get this completely straight, but basically it turned out to be quite an, um, adventure. The only way to find the trail out there is via GPS and some hard to see markers along the path, but they knew going in that it would be about an 8 mile hike round trip. They all piled in our 6 passenger vehicle and made the drive out, then parked just before a wash that they weren't sure the car could clear, but thought they were close enough to the trail head. As they walked and walked and walked without reaching the trail head (and seeing cars even smaller than ours go by them, apparently having been able to get past the wash), Aaron and Bryce decided to go back and get the car to drive them all a little closer to where the trail actually started. They'd already come about 3.8 miles, so they hiked/jogged the whole way back to get the car, only to find that the trail head was just around the corner from where they'd decided to turn around. This was the beginning of the end, at least for Aaron. They still had another 4 miles to go to reach their destination, so by the time they got there he was wasted and couldn't enjoy it one bit. (Dad & Bryce have some pretty good photos that show how Aaron spent the hour while everyone else explored.) Then, back another 4 miles to the car. Needless to say, when he got home Aaron was. Not. Happy. Actually, everybody was pretty trashed.
On Sunday we went to church but had to beg off on a trip to the Grand Canyon afterwards. Aaron just wasn't up for more sight-seeing/hiking, and of course no one could blame him. By then it was just our family and Bryce & Dena left, so we got to spend a little more time with them before we had to head home on Monday. Again we stopped in Clearfield to spend the night at Brent's, then made the last leg of the trip home on Tuesday.
All in all, it was a pretty perfect holiday. Despite the long drive, it was definitely worth it. We had a great time with everyone and of course it's always a blast getting together with all of my siblings now that we're "grown up". The kids had plenty of people to pay attention to them and were sad as each group had to leave. Don't know when we'll all get to be together again, but just having those few days together definitely topped my list of things I was feeling thankful for.
4 comments:
Sarah,
I love all the pictures. It sounds like you guys had a blast!
And, um, does it make me look stupid that I didn't know people actually deep fried their turkeys? I've heard people joke about it, but I didn't know people did it for real! :) I bet it was tasty!
Man... i love our family. Really, i do.
It was a great time. And yes, Amy, deep fried turkey is the only way to go as far as I'm concerned. For one thing, they cook in about 50 minutes instead of 4 hours. And I'll have to echo Jennifer - I love you all too! It was so much fun we'll have to do it again another time.
Dad
So fun to see your whole family "grown up" and to see a few glimpses of Mommer and Popper. They still look like they're going strong. I don't know if you know but both of my mom's parents passed away years ago. Sounds like a great way to spend Thankgiving and you look radiant with your pretty pregnant self!
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